Over the Edge: Celebrating One Year of Adventure
Seattle + Australia + new business + vanlife + adventure = growth on the edge
Exactly one year ago, five days after retiring from a 20-year headship and 40 years of leading schools, I arrived in Australia. I stepped boldly over the edge and launched my Seattle + Australia adventure. I founded a new coaching and consulting business, stepped into vanlife with my partner, learned to swim, and explored and adventured in Australia.
I’ve learned so much in the last 12 months – about identity, purpose, and relationships. I’ve adapted to living in a very small space, and most significantly, I’ve deepened my own understanding of EdgeworkLife, an approach to living and working that has been my foundation for decades.
When I created an Instagram post (@edgeworklife) to mark my Seattle + Australia adventure anniversary, I noticed something. The images captured the joy, excitement, and adventure of it all, but they didn’t fully capture the other side of edgework – confusion, disruption, and uncertainty, where the growth actually happens.Make it stand out
As I look forward to more adventures in Seattle and Australia, I am reminded of these core tenets of EdgeworkLife:
Growth on the edge requires a vision, a plan, intention, a leap of faith, and reflection. These elements are intertwined in lovely and complex ways.
Once we leave our comfort zone there’s no “going back.” We change from the moment we start dreaming. We change from the moment we start planning and set our intention. And we definitely change from the moment we step over the edge.
What lies beyond the edge is exciting, disorienting, confusing, and affirming. It’s messy, as learning always is. Beyond the edge is where your old paradigms and perspectives are no longer helpful and you begin to reimagine and redefine who you are.
No matter how well you plan and anticipate what lies over the edge, you will never know what's on the other side until you experience it.
The ability to stay present and to sit with liminality is a crucial skill. We tend to rush the process, as if the answers or our success are waiting at the finish line. But growth takes place all along the journey, in the most difficult moments, especially when we allow ourselves to sit willingly alongside unknown and unfamiliar as if they are wise friends.
What edge are you standing on right now?
I'd love to hear about it! I can help you create a vision. I can help you create a strategy. I can stand with you as you take the leap into the beyond. Perhaps most importantly, I can journey alongside you through the uncertainty and the unfamiliar, knowing that the unknown is the greatest gift of growth.